Sunday 9 August, 2009

fair play or chance ..?

Ever since I was child I have heard elders say that this universe is just. They said that deeds are like boomerang, though not so flamboyantly, they do come back to you soon or later. Good deeds are rewarded and evil punished, well I don’t know what happens to the grey area. If you plot evil you will have to bear the brunt of it someday. They said it with all the conviction that there is, that the all mighty upstairs has a log book (maybe he uses SAP now) to keep track of our white, black and grey deeds. “Nothing goes unnoticed, my child. The Lord is watching you every second”, was what my second grade school teacher had told me. As a naive young boy I believed in everything they told me, partly because I thought so too and mostly because they believed so strongly in it.

For fair portion of my life I have believed in it and to a great extent I still do...

But lately another chain of thought has been culminating in my mind; what if this is all bull-s**t and there isn’t anyone who one really keeps scores. I have never really cared if my scores were kept by ‘Bharma’ or by a ‘Flying Spaghetti Monster’ (http://www.venganza.org/), but always believed that scores were like a provident fund, you can en-cash someday. But what if instead of a balancing algorithm it’s a random number generating function. We speak of a just and fair world and yet accept all the despicable acts of violence, calamities, rape and death everyday as if it were somehow a part of that balancing act. A six year old died in a car accident, her clock stopped ticking and we were sad :’(… chooo chweet. I do not believe that in the 2190 days she lived, she had enough time to gauge how the world works leave aside the possibility of her committing any act as atrocious as to receive a death penalty. And then we say, ‘ God works in mysterious ways ’. Well he sure does.
The point I am trying to put forward here is that maybe it is all a matter of chance, more like a dice rolled than balancing weights. When you flip a coin or roll a dice you just hope to get you desire and leave the rest to fate. The child dying example is only the tip of the ice berg, we find numerous examples everyday depicting how perfectly innocent people were sacrificed to this game of chance and nobody questioned the log keeper.
But if chance is all that prevails then why put up a facade of fairness and boomerang analogies. Probably because these analogies have a much higher purpose to serve. When an individual fears in the power of log book he thinks twice before committing a crime. I man driven by lust think a million times before he commits hideous acts which degrade the human nature. His sense of morality and fairness help him overcome his unrestrained animal instincts to violate another human being. He believes that he will have to face a similar situation someday and redemption will be upon him that day.
Now imagine a man who fears no one, he believes in chance. He can go cheat, swindle, kill and still walk free because he will get convicted based only on chance. There is no stopping such a man. And looking at the justice system, his beliefs may turn out to be true as well. But I am not talking about the police convicting him; I am talking about the universe making him back based on the log kept upstairs. If people stop believing in the log keeper, there will utter chaos in this world and morality will lose its meaning in due time. Our sense of right and wrong will soon be hazy and everything will merge into one big grey area for which no one accountable.
So, as much as I hate to believe and see people believe in the idea of a log keeper, I think it is for the best that our rational mind has chosen something as irrational as morality than the rational nature of chance…

13 comments:

Neeraj said...

hmm..interesting view!

although I'd like to think that if there is indeed a log keeper then 'chance' wouldnt be so rational.

Anu said...

LOL...sumhow the whole post made me laugh...dunno y...bt newys nice 1

Prachi Bansal said...

God does not play dice with the universe...i follow this school of thought and i have ample reasons to do so....so many incidents have led me to believe that whatever u do, comes back to u someday... however, most of the times u won't realise that this is the case..

Avinash said...

well written, i somehow disagree though,i personally believe in the boomerang theory.....if not a log,then a "Give and Take" policy is followed for sure. U give some goods u get some in return and U give some pain u get some in return too. Believe me the probability of the later event is much higher...but honestly a nice read :)

saurabhnotes said...

i believe that we all have some duties..as a citizen,son,brother,lover..etc. as long as we perform them we are morally correct.
i sometimes feel(not strongly) that the log book n boomerang theory have been incorporated into to the society only to create fear..to keep people "morally correct".we should be driven by duties and not theories.
and regarding the innocent child dying... im not too sure..i came across this link a few days ago...hope it helps: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm
PS: i worship sid_bloke.

gowri said...

y worry so much abt this God chap neway
he doesnt seem to worry much abt us

Nimit said...

Hmmm Interesting. But well I am a person who believes in karma. ( ya I get the yawn and the expression of me talking bull shit.) But well in my life it has played its part.

Probably the whole thing about he watching us from above is a deterrent to prevent us from committing anything heinous. Probably he isn't. Probably it is all chance.

But then this is what I ask

What if it isn't?

Rohit said...

Nice post sid-bhai.I am a firm believer in God, and though I don't subscribe to some of the views here, I still feel that questioning the existence of God, and searching for answers strengthens my faith in Him. For every misdeed I have seen, for every innocent young life snatched away, for every heinous rape, for every murder, I see an equally marvelous wonder, I see miracles. A lot of people make the mistake of confusing a miracle with magic. Any small little thing can be a miracle - the birth of a child, the blooming of flowers, meeting the right girl (or guy :-) ).

I don't really subscribe to 'what goes around come around'. That sounds a bit like God wants to play tit-for-tat. But yes, I do believe that good deeds are rewarded, and bad ones punished.

Anyway, enough of my theories - a well written, thought provoking blog entry :-)

Full Of Life said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Full Of Life said...

Ah, thought provoking indeed. But I am a firm believer in the 'boomerang theory'. More than an external log, its more about leading your life with a clear conscience and peace of mind, something that doing a crime no longer gives.
Being good feels good and does good. Why think of the bad anyway ?

@ Gow: Lolmax. Yeah, feeling of abandonment is another issue altogether :P

Pranav Jawale said...

may be it's not fair play, may be it's plain chance - but would you take the risk of taking it?

May be god doesn't want us to understand his/her logic (after all s/he is God!). or may be only some fortunate people understand that underlying logic.


@FOL nice thought, do good - feel good.

Unknown said...

my dearest friend, it has been said that patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting... GOD makes all things right and beautiful, in HIS time... i have read a beautiful passage in an old magazine that goes something like this... "The LORD hides everything in nothing... HE hides a tree in a seed... HE hides a king in a shepherd boy... HE hides a SAVIOR in a BABY..." are'nt you excited to see what HE's hiding in you?... then i say, i would never lose hope, because i know GOD LOVES ME.. besides i do believe that No one has travelled the road of success without even crossing the streets of failures, afterall, GOD never promise an easy journey in life, only safe arrival, i am sure, if we just allow him to be our GUIDE...... have a lovely day dearest friend Sidharth Agarwalji.........urs ever..sahib singh

Unknown said...

Interesting thought, a topic often pondered upon. Everyone has their own beliefs on it mostly due to past experience.

But considering from a purely logical perspective you have reached one sure (and perhaps obvious?) conclusion: That society will crumble in world without morals or god. So it's plain to see that it's a control measure and if you measure success by wealth or power then it's also plain to see that almost all of those who are successful have exploited others, whether it is through violence, threats etc. or merely exploiting the law and goodwill of others.

One theory however is that morality is inbuilt in human beings as it is to some extent in animals. Consider that most animals have priorities in this order of importance:
1. Self preservation.
(Survival and betterment of one self)

2. Preservation of own children

3. Preservation of others and society.

There generally holds true for animals however sees many exceptions in humans. Ex: People suicide, chose not to have kids or abandon them or worse and ofcourse hurt others (by far the most common)

Then it boils down personal beliefs, priorities and choice. If you want to do something and can live with it's consequences (including guilt, regret etc.) then you will probably do it (or should?). If you can't then don't.

On a side note an interesting thing you pointed out with the log keeper idea was the 'Hope and Fear' aspect (Or call it reward and punishment in simple terms). It's interesting to note that in all religions and moral philosophies this Reward and Fear aspect exists. (call it Karma, Rebirth or Heaven and Hell)
The fear aspect is to prevent you from doing "bad" things because you will be punished if you do while the reward aspect gives you hope for something in return for doing "good".

(Anyways, interesting blog, finally visited it. Hope you're keeping well :) )